The present invention relates to an apparatus for setting a price for a multi-vending machine and a method thereof, and more particularly, to an apparatus for setting a price for a multi-vending machine capable of conveniently setting and changing prices of sale products in each column and a method thereof.
In general, a vending machine, which is operated in an unmanned sale scheme, possesses various products, such as coffee, cigarettes, snacks or books, for sale therein and dispenses a product through an outlet to a purchaser who desires to purchase the product when the purchaser selects the product after inserting currency corresponding to the desired product.
Recently, differently from general vending machines, a multi-vending machine for selling various kinds of products through a single machine in an unmanned sale scheme has been proposed.
A multi-vending machine has been disclosed in Korean Patent Unexamined Publication No. 10-2010-0087846 (Published on Aug. 6, 2010; hereinafter, referred to as “related art”).
The related art senses whether a shelf protrudes or not. Thus, it is previously prevented that a basket collides against the shelf so that the vending machine can be prevented from being broken caused when the shelf is not fully input into a product showcase. In addition, products in the showcase can be prevented from falling down from the shelf due to the movement of the machine and the basket accurately moves up and down without any errors. Further, a banner advertisement, which appears and disappears as the basket moves up and down, is provided, so that an observer feels fun, so additional profit may be obtained.
However, according to the related art, when the prices of the products of each column provided in a plurality of shelves are set, since a manager assigns the prices to the products of each self and attaches the tags (in a sticker type) corresponding the assigned prices to each shelf one by one, it takes many time to set the prices to the products and, in addition, it is very inconvenient to manually set the prices to the products.
Specifically, when the prices of the products are changed after the price tags are attached to each column, since new price tags must be attached again after removing the previous price tags, it is very troublesome and takes many time to change the price tags.